Hard work, sacrifices – keys to success

Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) President and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant has challenged high school students to be willing to make extra sacrifices in order to attain professional success.

“It’s extremely important that you are focused on your goal at hand and you are being purposeful around what you are doing,” Grant urged a lecture hall filled with lower sixth-formers from St Andrew High School for Girls, Kingston College, and Holy Childhood High at the University of West Indies, Mona campus’s Faculty of Science and Technology on January 9.

“But to get where you need to go, it takes sacrifice. There is no traffic on the extra mile. For those who get up earlier, it’s a whole different experience from those who got up later. It means you have to also go to bed earlier. It means that you have to come off the social media platforms earlier, or you have to shut off the games you have earlier, or whatever sacrifices you have to make,” the island’s power company top man said at an introductory meeting with students attending weeklong Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exams (CAPE) workshops facilitated by the JPS Foundation in partnership with the university. “Trust me, making that extra sacrifice is very, very rewarding. But to do it, you have to be intentional and you have to be disciplined.”

The foundation signed a $16 million, five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2023 with UWI, Mona, which provides support for annual workshops. The first workshop was organised last year preparing students to sit science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) CAPE subjects in biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, geography, and maths. The workshops are designed to strengthen the performance of students pursuing the targeted subjects and facilitate a reduction in the workshop price to students, from a potential $5,000 to $1,500. The price will be fixed at $1,500 for the next five years. The CAPE workshops will allow high school students to access UWI labs, improve their knowledge base, and improve their preparation to sit the exams. This year marks the second year of the M0U.

CONFIDENT MINDSET

Charting the educational and professional trajectories of his life, Grant shared with the secondary-school students that developing a confident, self-determined mindset was a key driver to becoming accomplished.

He spoke of his beginnings in Independence City, St Catherine, graduating from the former College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST), now University of Technology, and landing his first job as an assistant control engineer at the JPS. In the pursuit of garnering further employment and advancing his education, Grant explained: “I always had a dream of working and being exposed to a big utility company in a big city in what we call the First World, so when I had the opportunity to go to the United States, I went to Florida.”

Grant did electrical engineering at Florida International University, earning a bachelor’s degree, before being interviewed and later accepting a job offer to work in New York for Con Edison, the North American state’s leading light and power provider, as a technician.

His ambitions, Grant shared, were much greater than his entry-level position. “I knew I would not be a technician for too long, I just wanted a start and an opportunity. I knew I was willing to outwork everyone else. Within 10 years, I moved from a technician to a general manager at Con Edison.”

In-between attaining a Master of Science degree from Pace University and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, the Campion College alum elevated himself to being the vice-president of steam operations at the company. “At Con Edison, where there are about 14,000 employees, they called me the Usain Bolt [of the company] based on the rate at which I was moving and getting promotions and going up the ranks,” Grant, JPS president and CEO since August 2024, revealed.

GOING EXTRA MILE

Crediting his career accomplishments as a testimony to going the extra mile, he cited an example of his work ethic in The Big Apple. “As a technician [at Con Edison], I would go out there and have my [electrical] print and be troubleshooting something and wonder, how did this work? I would take my print home and look at it and come back early the next day to get a head start. That’s what one degree more looks like,” he informed the CAPE-ready students.

“I want to encourage you to think about what that extra degree, or sacrifice, looks like to you, to afford you a whole other type of experience. That one degree more might mean studying an extra hour more a day or various sacrifices that represent that one degree, but that one degree can transform your life.”

He encouraged the students to ascribe to a three-point life credo to advance themselves. “Be confident in all you do. As Jamaicans, we are the best of the best. Believe me. I have been up against the best in first class,” he said. “We here in Jamaica have a solid education system, and we have a great sense of pride ... utilise that to instill great confidence in yourself and know that all things are possible.”

Second, he advised: “Be an avid learner. Try to be like a sponge and soak everything up. The more you learn and the more you apply yourself, the better off you are. And lastly, I would say just have fun in what you do. You are at an exciting time in your life.”

RESONATED

For Holy Childhood Childhood student Cherieki Hopwood, president of the school’s JPS Power Up Energy Club, Grant’s life story resonated deeply: “It was a really good reminder to be confident in my decision-making and to be an avid learner. I was really inspired by that,” disclosed the student currently giving consideration to pursuing a medicine or equivalent degree.

“I am going through a phase of self-clarity. It’s good to have a sign that it will all work out, and he was that sign. He said education does pay off, and that really made me feel like I was at home because I hear my mommy saying it every day, and it was important for me to hear that because he’s a physical embodiment of the idea that education does pay off. So hearing that, I feel I can spend easily another seven years in school.”

In 2024, the JPS Foundation/UWI CAPE Workshops accommodated over 500 high school students, who benefited from the subsidised programme, which included access to laboratories that they would normally not have at their schools thus elevating their readiness for the external science-based exams.

These workshops are but one of a number of initiatives carried out by the JPS Foundation as it supports education. Others include grants to students sitting the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate electrical and electrical technology exam; the JPS Foundation Power Up scholarships, which support primary to tertiary students; and the JPS Foundation Community Power Up Programme, which helps give school leavers a second chance to develop marketable skills in the energy and business space.